1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a print control system constructed by a printer driver which operates depending on an application program and an operating system, a control method of the print control system, and a control program of an information processing apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to creation of a second print job different from a first print job designated from an application program.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Hitherto, in the case of printing on a computer in which an operating system such as Microsoft (registered trademark) Windows (registered trademark) or the like has been installed, an application program forms a print job. The print job is sent to a printer driver through a process of the operating system. The printer driver executes printing in such order that the print job is converted into a format such as a PDL or the like which can be processed by a printer and transmitted to the printer (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2003-263288 and 2004-54895).
FIG. 8 is a timing chart illustrating the operation of a first related art.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the first related art.
In the above first related art, the application program is an application program having a printing function such as Microsoft (registered trademark) Word or the like. In S11, when the user instructs printing, the print job is formed. The formed print job is constructed by a print command and print data. In S12, each of them is subjected to a data process by the operating system and transferred to the printer driver. The printer driver converts the print data into a format which can be printed by the printer in S13 and transmits it to the printer in S14. The printer prints it in S15. In the above first related art, the general printing operation from the application program is executed.
FIG. 10 is a timing chart illustrating the operation of a second related art.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the second related art.
In FIG. 10, a first application program is similar to the application program in the first related art. With respect to portions overlapped with those in the first related art, their description is omitted. The operating system transfers the print command and print data constructing the main print job formed by the first application program to the printer driver. In the second related art, whether or not a display-edit of the main print job is executed according to settings on the printer driver is discriminated in S21.
Specifically speaking, the above “display-edit of the print job” is such a function that the job in which the printing has been instructed by the user is confirmed by a print preview function or such a function that information about a stamp, a header, and a footer is added to the formed print data.
In the case of executing the display-edit in S23, the second application program illustrated in FIG. 10 is started from the printer driver in S22. According to the second application program, after a preview display and an editing process were executed, a data print process is executed again by a user instruction, and thereafter, the print process is executed in a manner similar to the first related art.
In the case of the second related art, according to the second application program, a whole page is displayed, print order is changed on a page unit basis, or a plurality of pages are recorded onto one sheet of recording paper, and thus there is no need to change print settings of the driver. Therefore, data which is transferred from the printer driver to the second application program is data of a metafile format which is used when the operating system spools the job. That is, information regarding the settings of the printer is not transferred from the printer driver to the second application program.
However, in the case where a subsidiary printout different from a printed material which the user wants to obtain as a printout, for example, a printed material such as a chart or the like for performing color matching of an inherent printout is printed from the printer driver, there are the following problems.
For example, a case where the printer driver forms the print job and performs printing, in place of an application program of a print system in the related art is now presumed. Normally, the printer driver receives the print job from the operating system and processes the received print job. However, since in the above presumption the printer driver forms the print job, a relationship between the master and the servant in the print process is broken.
In the print process in the general operating system including Microsoft (registered trademark) Windows (registered trademark), a reversal of the above relationship between the master and the servant is not permitted. There is, consequently, such a problem that the printer driver cannot directly form a subsidiary print job.